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Highlights

  • Abelard castrated
  • Byzantine wife saves husband
  • Amphitryon & Geta duped
  • Chastelaine de Vergi tragedy
  • Aristotle’s advice to Alexander
  • Empress Theodora: woman leader
  • Tristan & Isuet
  • Xanthippe & Socrates
  • New Modern Sexism Scale

Théodore de Bèze

Théodore de Bèze (also called Theodore Beza and Theodorus Beza) was a poet, lawyer, and French Reformed Protestant theologian. Bèze was born 1519 in Vézelay in Burgundy, France. His family was of royal descent and Catholic. Bèze was educated in the classics and law. As a young man, Bèze wrote fine Latin poetry in the spirit of Ovid and Martial.

Bèze came to love passionately Claudine Denoese. She wasn’t of noble descent and probably wasn’t Catholic. In 1543, Théodore de Bèze secretly married Claudine Denoese. In 1548, he repudiated the Catholic Church and fled from Paris to Geneva.

In Geneva, Bèze successfully developed a career as a Calvinist theologian. In 1564, he succeeded John Calvin as the spiritual leader of the Calvinists. Bèze subsequently served his fellow Christians for the rest of his life as a Calvinist leader in Geneva.

In 1588, after forty years of marriage to the now eminent Calvinist theologian Théodore de Bèze, his wife Claudine died. Claudine and Théodore didn’t have any children. Bèze subsequently married Catharina del Piano, a Genoese widow.

Bèze’s extraordinary life of wide-ranging experience and broad thinking ended with his death in 1605 in Geneva. Between 1629 and 1641, Puritans left England to establish settlements in Massachusetts and Connecticut. Calvinism deeply shaped the Puritans. Bèze’s life, particularly his early poetry, is an under-appreciated component of the Puritan intellectual heritage in America.

sex & gender trouble addressed with medieval creativity and tolerance

Medieval literature overcame sex and gender trouble with creativity and tolerance. Our intensely moralistic age needs medieval, rational moral priorities. … Read the post sex & gender trouble addressed with medieval creativity and tolerance

Helen, Laodamia, Lesbia: dispelling men’s myths about women

Helen & Menelaus were like Lesbia & Catullus. Neither woman was like Laodamia of Phylace. Men accept women’s infidelities under oppressive gynocentrism. … Read the post Helen, Laodamia, Lesbia: dispelling men’s myths about women

medieval insight: what prevents hate amid gender injustices

Amid gender injustices, hate isn’t inevitable. Medieval literature shows ways that God saves men from hating beloved women whom they feel have hurt them. … Read the post medieval insight: what prevents hate amid gender injustices

Rabelais added dog piss to Flamenca’s mockery of elite pretenses

After amorous gambits in church as in medieval Flamenca, Rabelais’ Panurge overthrew the great lady of Paris with dog piss in carnivalic gender revolution. … Read the post Rabelais added dog piss to Flamenca’s mockery of elite pretenses

Guillem’s prayers and Rosalía’s “Di mi nombre”: about gyno-idolatry

The 13th-century Provençal novel Flamenca offers vital insight into Rosalía’s global hit “Di me nombre” (on El mal querer) & failures of literary studies. … Read the post Guillem’s prayers and Rosalía’s “Di mi nombre”: about gyno-idolatry